Have you ever taken a vacation, then arrived home to say, “I need a vacation from my vacation?” Or maybe you’ve taken some time for self-care, only to find yourself back in the proverbial hamster wheel?
What if you could learn to reduce stress, anger, and anxiety without having to take time off or slow down? This method is for you if you are looking for a lasting solution to stress. It is also for you if you simply don’t have the luxury of taking time off or slowing down because you feel that your life won’t let you.
I call it the Pressure-Free Method. By Pressure-Free, I mean that no matter what pressures, stressors or challenges come your way, you can stay free of triggering the fight-flight-or-freeze stress response. In other words, you can begin to stop over-reacting, and choose your response to any situation.
The Pressure-Free Method is three simple steps. It’s not rocket science, but you’ve got years, even generations, of habits of reactions that are causing you to trigger the stress response for so many different reasons.It helps you to reduce stress without slowing down.
Step 1.
Targets. What are you aiming for? Do you wish you could land a big promotion or grow your business? Do you want to have a more peaceful loving family life? Do you have a chronic disease that you want to get a handle on? Do you want to feel less anxious or annoyed?
My clients’ targets usually fall into three categories:
Health –
They want better mental and physical health. To be happier and feel more fulfilled. To have a strong immune system. To reduce or prevent chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer, eczema. To slow the aging process and have healthier hair, skin, bones, and muscles. To prevent the “silent killer” from sneaking up on them.
Relationships –
They want more fulfilling relationships. To have better sex without all the anxiety. To be better parents to their children. To get along better with co-workers. To love and respect themselves and others more deeply.
Performance, both mental and physical –
To successfully achieve their goals and dreams. To reduce the fear of failure and nagging thoughts that they aren’t good enough. To have more time to experience a full life. To craft their lives and feel more in control, confident.
What is important to you? What would you like to see a shift or change in your life?
Here are some reduce stress affirmations:
- I stay up, Pressure-Free, in my Genius Zone all day.
- My immune system protects me day and night.
- My love is unconditional and I receive love fully and completely.
- My body and mind resonate at a high level so that I can share Pressure-Free with the world.
Step 2.
Triggers The things that trigger you are not causing your body, mind, relationships, and performance to deteriorate, your reactions to them are. By gaining clarity about all the possible triggers in your day, you build an awareness of them. One reason people come home from vacations exhausted is that there are hundreds of triggers when traveling. A clue is if your digestion is messed up. To discover your triggers, ask yourself what makes you feel Angry, Anxious, Annoyed or Ashamed. Or any other emotions like these. If your list is big, have no fear! Just working on a couple of triggers at a time will help you with others.
Step 3.
Tools and the Ten-Second Solution. Once you start becoming aware that a trigger is starting to cause you to feel angry, anxious, annoyed or ashamed, you have about ten seconds before the first flood of stress hormones will release from your adrenal glands. I call them a “cocktail” with adrenaline being the main hormone because you are now under the influence of these potent drugs that reduce brain function, cause chronic disease and affect every cell. Later, the second flood of hormones, glucocorticoids, releases to fix your brain cells and extremities by getting the salt, sugar and water content normal. However, glucocorticoids have a host of side-effects, including lowering your immune system up to 40%.
The key to experiencing less stress is not a vacation, yoga or meditation. Those are all great activities. But if you leave your yoga class and start complaining about the traffic on your way home, you just triggered the stress response.
The real key to less stress is to not release the stress hormones. At all. All day. Because for males, the cells require up to nine hours to dissipate the hormones out and get back to normal. For females, the cells require up to twenty-four hours!
Ask yourself this simple question: “What can I do in the first ten seconds that I start feeling angry, anxious, annoyed or ashamed to stay Pressure-Free?” The answers are your tools.
I have built over forty tools to help my clients. Here are a few to help you get started. They fall into three categories:
Body Tools –
Relax your abs. Move into a Strong Posture. Take a long, slow, belly breath to lower your heart rate.
Mind Tools –
Smile to keep dopamine flowing. Slogan – A quick affirmation or declaration that resonates with the situation. Empowering Question – A question that moves you immediately toward solution like, “How can I…?” Or “What can we…”
Life-Design Tools –
Time management tools like the 80/20 rule. Noticing your negative tendencies like complaining, meddling, blaming, shaming and struggling. Goal-setting tools that fuel your passion.
The Pressure-Free Method is simple, but you are complex. You have hundreds of subtle triggers – ways that you imitated anyone who had or has influence over you, memories of trauma or events that made you feel ashamed or awkward, the natural fears of being human. You will try to justify and rationalize your feelings, and I encourage you to just let that go if you want true change. Because you are worth it.
Wishing you a beautiful, Pressure-Free day!
My name is Elle Ingalls, High-Performance Coach for Pressure-Free Living. I came across ThinkUp over a year ago, and immediately recorded my free affirmations and started listening to my own voice encouraging me. There is something powerful about hearing our own voices declare what we want in our lives. Like many people, I fell away from listening, until just recently, my own business coach encouraged all of her clients to download the app! I already had it, and started listening again. A few months ago I invested in the paid subscription because I know that when I make an investment in me, not only do I do the work, but it up-levels me. I also am recommending ThinkUp to all of my Pressure-Free clients and followers. Thank you for a brilliant platform to help people on their journeys.
Elle Ingalls, High-Performance Coach for Pressure-Free Living
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